1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a panel comprising a metal fabric.
The field of the invention is that of decorative panels used in the building industry. These panels are often mounted on the outside of facades and serve for example to cover picture windows while allowing light to pass through. In this way, the light inside the building is less bright and the air cooler in times of strong sunshine. Such panels may also be used to partition a space occupied by people, such as an office suite.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the present case, a panel is produced from a metal fabric consisting of a screen and a chain. This fabric is assembled with a fixing means on at least one of its sides. The fixing means is furnished with a suspension device that enables the panel to be hung on an architectural element of the building.
There are disadvantages associated with panels of this kind.
Indeed, the metal fabric is made up of rigid screen elements and flexible chain elements. It is cut off of a roll and is necessarily rectangular or square in shape, since the cut is made parallel to the screen.
The elements of the screen are rods and the elements of the chain are each made up of one or more wire pairs perpendicular to the screen. A pair of wires consists of two wires that pass alternately above and below each rod so that the fabric retains its integrity. Of course, the wires fray at the cut. It is important to prevent this fraying, because this may result in the fabric falling apart.
According to a first known assembly method, the ends of the wires are welded to the rods that are positioned at the outer edges of the fabric. Otherwise, several rods are removed in a bonding area close to the cut line. Then a connecting means, for example a bar, is placed in this bonding area by inserting it in the eyebolts that are arranged at regular intervals for fixing the panel. These bolts must be arranged between elements of the chain, so that they cannot be positioned freely. Moreover, the rods located outside the bonding area must be shortened to a point level with the eyebolts. It seems that a large number of operations are required to assemble this panel:                welding the wires,        passivating the welds,        spacing the wires.        
These operations are time-consuming and require meticulous precision on the part of the operators. Not only is the cost price expensive, the panel can only be rectangular.
According to a second known assembly method, the ends of the wires are again welded to the screen rods at the edges of the fabric. One edge of the fabric parallel to the screen is then inserted between two metal plates that serve as a fixing means. Clamping screws, which secure the joint between the fixing means and the fabric are inserted in holes created in this plates and therefore pass through the fabric to hold it in place. The panel produced in this way may be suspended from a fixed structure by means of suspension elements that are permanently attached to one or both plates. Manufacturing a panel of this kind also takes a great deal of time and requires a high degree of accuracy on the part of the operators. In addition, the fabric cannot be positioned very precisely.
According to a third known assembly method, several rods on one edge of the fabric are removed so that the chain elements along a certain length are clear. The end of one chain element, that is to say a group of wires, that has been cleared in this way, is looped around a bar that is provided for fixing the panel. The loop that secures the join between the fabric and the bar is locked around the bar by crimping. It is possible to create these loops on all the chain elements, but this would entail a very large number of operations. It is also possible to create such loops only on a small number of chain elements, and this would necessitate welding the other elements to the last rod in the fabric. This method requires destroying the fabric along a length equivalent to that of the loops.
It should be noted that the fabrics can only be cut off parallel to the screen in all these panels.